Decline of the intertidal blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) stock at the coast of Lower Saxony (Wadden Sea) and influence of mussel fishery on the development of young mussel beds

Since the middle of the 1980s, the intertidal blue mussel stock has decreas ed on the coast of Lower Saxony. In spring 1996, the remaining mussel beds covered an area of 1.7 km(2) with a total fresh weight of about 1000 t. Thi s is equivalent to a loss of nearly 95% of the mussel bed area and 98% of t he biomass compared with 1989-91. In autumn 1995, a comparison between fish ed and non-fished young intertidal mussel beds at sites of former mature be ds was carried out in the Lower Saxonian Wadden Sea: most of the investigat ed fished young mussel beds and bed areas disappeared completely or were ne xt to extinction after seed mussel fishery happened. In contrast to this de velopment, the non-fished beds and bed areas remained.